By: Jason EasleyMay 19, 2012
Because President Obama is pushing for more financial regulation and
reform, Wall Street is going all in on Mitt Romney and the Republican
Party. Now Obama is fighting back.
Here’s the video:
The president described the causes of the 2008 financial crisis and
said,
Since then, we’ve recovered taxpayer dollars that were
used to stabilize troubled banks. And we’ve put in place Wall Street
reform with smarter, tougher, commonsense rules that serve one primary
purpose: to prevent a crisis like that from ever happening again. And
yet, for the past two years, too many Republicans in Congress and an
army of financial industry lobbyists have actually been waging an
all-out battle to delay, defund, and dismantle Wall Street reform.
Recently, we’ve seen why we can’t let that happen. We found out that
a big mistake at one of our biggest banks resulted in a two billion
dollar loss. While that bank can handle a loss of that size, other
banks may not have been able to. And without Wall Street reform, we
could have found ourselves with the taxpayers once again on the hook for
Wall Street’s mistakes.
That’s why it’s so important that Members of Congress stand on the
side of reform, not against it; because we can’t afford to go back to an
era of weak regulation and little oversight; where excessive
risk-taking on Wall Street and a lack of basic oversight in Washington
nearly destroyed our economy. We can’t afford to go back to that brand
of ‘you’re-on-your-own’ economics. Not after the American people have
worked so hard to come back from this crisis.
…
So unless you run a financial institution whose business model is
built on cheating consumers, or making risky bets that could damage the
whole economy, you have nothing to fear from Wall Street reform. Yes,
it discourages big banks and financial institutions from making risky
bets with taxpayer-insured money. And it encourages them to do things
that actually help the economy – like extending loans toentrepreneurs
with good ideas, to middle-class families who want to buy a home, to
students who want to pursue higher education.
That’s what Wall Street reform is all about – making this economy
stronger for you. And we’re going to keep working – to recover every
job lost to the recession; to build an economy where hard work and
responsibility are once again rewarded; to restore an America where
everyone has a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone
plays by the same rules.
I believe the free market is one of the greatest forces for progress
in human history; that businesses are the engine of growth; that
risk-takers and innovators should be celebrated. But I also believe
that at its best, the free market has never been a license to take
whatever you want, however you can get it. Alongside our
entrepreneurial spirit and rugged individualism, America only prospers
when we meet our obligations to one another; and to future generations.
If you agree with me, let your Member of Congress know. Tell them to
spend less time working to undermine rules that are there to protect
the economy, and spend more time actually working to strengthen the
economy.
There is a myth forwarded by some on the left and even more on the
right that both Obama and Romney are Wall Street funded candidates.
While Wall Street did support Obama in 2008 because they wanted their
bailout, and Obama looked like a sure winner over McCain, the worm has
turned in 2012. As soon as Obama supported financial reform, even in its
most modest form, Wall Street bolted from Obama and curled up into the
loving arms of one of their own, Mitt Romney.
A study by the
Center for Responsive Politics
found that 92% of the securities and investment industry donations have
gone to the Republican Party, and 72% of Wall Street’s contributions
have gone to Mitt Romney. Wall Street can’t get over the fact that Obama
and the Democrats had the nerve to ask for a little something back for
the billions of taxpayer dollars in bailouts that they were given.
The financial reform bill that was passed and signed into law
(Dodd-Frank) does not even come close to performing the type of clean up
and regulation that needs to be done. The bill was watered down and
neutered by Wall Street lobbyists through the members of Congress that
they bankroll, and even after any real chance at reform had been
neutered, congressional Republicans are still blocking implementation of
the new law.
Republicans and Wall Street are in agreement that there should be
zero reforms and regulations. They want to and more relaxed environment
than the one that caused the Great Recession. When Wall Street screws up
and pushes the economy to the brink of collapse, they want Republicans
on the scene with a blank check in hand to pat them on the head and let
them know that all will be well.
This is the Republican vision for America. This is why the right
howls class warfare when Obama puts the people first calls for the
simplest of reforms, and this will be the future for our country if Mitt
Romney is elected president.
Obama is a pragmatic centrist, and right now the nation needs a dose
of pragmatism to stop the Republican Party and their special interests
from pushing us over the edge.
No comments:
Post a Comment